Friday, August 31, 2018

Ruger revolvers have a sharp aris. Something about a SIG DAK trigger gets abraded by the tip of it's trigger.

1911s give me no issue.

The bottom of the Hudson's trigger hurts me, mildly.

The striker trigger is different in the H9. It bugs people that are used to Glock style trigger, but you get used to it fast enough. The hinge for the trigger safety is at the bottom for the H9.

It's that area that pinches a bit. Easy fix. Set my finger a bit higher. Or just ignore it. It's not enough to make me flinch about it. If I were going to a high round count live fire training evolution I'd tape that finger. Maybe.

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

"If I am right handed and have a bit of a flinch because a small explosion is going off in my hands when I shoot, where do the shots land, T-Bolt?"

Low and left.

"Where do the shot land if I am slapping the trigger?"

Low and left.

"My shots land low and left, how do I know which it is?"

Well are you screwing up your face and eyes when the shot breaks? Flinch. Are you yanking the trigger too hard and making the shot go off NOW? Slap. Maybe you are doing both.

"I can't wait til I am like you and no longer have a flinch or slap the trigger and shoot good"

OH, NO! Who told you I don't do that? ALL the time. With practice you get used to the explosion and you flinch less but you still flinch. I still do. Same with slapping, especially when under stress by trying to go faster. It's a constant struggle.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

"Yeah, Everytown is full of shit, saying there is a butt load of school shootings,*" NPR said, "We went to the places and no one in those school systems know what Everytown is talking about. It's totally bogus! I'd trust Trump before I'd trust Everytown."

Now that area has lots of foot traffic. There is a mall and a subway station and lots of apartments. Demographics are heavily Hispanic immigrants, and they come from a culture that might not be inculcated with pedestrian safety messages since birth. Plenty of hobos begging for change and the traffic lights. On my drive in in the morning LOTS of people crossing not at the crosswalk, in the early morning, when it is dark and my window is foggy. Many are in a hurry to get to a bus stop on the 'other' side of the road.

And that's how you get hit. Here.

When I was a kid I lived further up county and those areas were plagued by a lack of sidewalks next to roads. So people got hit going along the road rather than crossing.

So what will this mean going forward? Probably a push for more speed cameras. I pass 3 schools on my way to the highway in 4 miles. That means 3 speed cameras giving you a ticket if you go 40 in a 35. But most people are over cautious and act like "if I get a ticket going 5 over, maybe they will send me a check if I go 5 under..." so we get an increase in fender benders as people slam on the brakes.

Monday, August 27, 2018

I thought it was pictures. Or video. Just reporting. By the Post. Now I don't know what to think. I barely believe 10% of what I read there. Maybe 20% of stuff pictured. Maybe. Maybe it is true.

If true, ffs.

If...

I don't trust the customs and drug cops, I don't trust the reporters, I don't trust the victim. Or that there is a victim and it isn't figment of a reporter's imagination. On this or much of anything. That's the world we live in, and that's where I find my journey has taken me. I don't like it. I don't like being this cynical and bitter.

Saturday, August 25, 2018

In my dream there were waterspouts on the Chesapeake Bay. Also, I was 4 shopping months til Christmas, I only had one gift and it was a GIJoe for my 47 year old brother, I had no Christmas cards, and the Hallmark store was out of business.

I was a military aircraft nerd by 1980. I could go on and on about WWII airframes. But in 1980 modern airframes were just a few.

F-15 and F-14. Attractive enough. Even then I was disappointed with the Tomcat's engine performance, but the Eagle look tough and powerful.

F-4. That the above replace. Clunky front end on the Phantom, but I love the lines on the empannage.

And the low part of High/Low. F-16 and F-17, later 18. The Hornet left me with meh, but the Falcon.

Just gorgeous lines, all round. Lookatit.

And, of course, all these airframes are still pretty much better than anything else out there. We could bring back the F-4 with just a little modification. Modernize the avionics and the engines, and it will work just fine if used to its strengths.

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Got my buddy the gun enthusiast, retired now, to play Fallout New Vegas. Mostly to get him familiar with the controls of a video game again in anticipation of Fallout 76 which is gonna be a coop/multi-player type experience. Sposedly

I recommended New Vegas because the story is fascinating and the music is top notch.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

A libertarian leaning buddy saw someone on some news site getting searched by a cop. Another cop was close by as backup and this one had his hand on the grip of his holstered pistol the whole time. Searching a school counselor returning from Jamaica. Body cavity.

Libertarian thought this hand-on-gun bit was overly provocative, and notes many officers do it as a matter of course. To him this was tantamount to assault with a deadly weapon by the observer cop, putting aside the violations of the search itself.

I didn't see it that way. Certainly not to that degree. I don't like it, but I am not for restricting it. I am thinking that's a good way to maintain weapon retention in case routine search turns full goat rodeo because reasons.

He concedes that the uniform is a representative of Society enforcing it's Rule of Law, and the cop is a human as well as a greater symbol... Just the hand on holstered pistol goes way too far in his eyes. And explicit threat that should be unacceptable.

Now if he was holding the pistol barrel against the subject's head while he is being searched, I do think THAT is a bridge too far.

Monday, August 20, 2018

Sure, I aimed high to compensate for the sights. And that high one was a flyer. But look at the group! I was happy to do that with .22 a couple years back.

And this after not training, or practicing, for almost a month.

What was the secret? Relaxing. I didn't dwell on the shots. My attitude was "I know what a sight picture is, I know how to make the trigger go good. Just do that."

Obviously, I am not perfect. In a string of targets I have a bad habit of moving to the next target before I taking care of the business at hand with the first target. And in a hurry I still slap the heck out of the trigger. I need to concentrate on resets, then fast resets, then 'move beyond the reset...' like more advanced shooters do. But that's a process. Get the resets first. Worry about the next step after.

The minutiae I think about now compared to 5 years ago. And once mastered the minutiae turns into background noise... This part of the process fascinates me.

Hatfield's has a metal finishing class coming. And I have a scratched up stainless project that could use some help.

Good.

Hey, if you want to learn in class how to install sights on a 1911, and can get to Manassas VA for a few Saturdays, or want to learn metal finishing or how to fit a new 1911 barrel and bushing... Give him a call, tell him I sent ya.

Friday, August 17, 2018

So the Parkland shooter used 5-round gimped AR mags to murder 17 of his classmates? That's a lotta reloads. Too bad someone wasn't nearby that could punched him in the mouth during one. Or maybe Barney Fife with his one bullet coulda shown up or sumthin.

You know what this means, right? Maryland is going to restrict us to 4 rounders.

I'll even have to go to the police station to show I have filled one of the cylinders of my J-frame snubby so it only holds 4. Good thing I have been practicing with a speed-strip, as working a 4 out of 5 speedloader will be problematic.

Maybe Judge Kavanaugh will tell my state to knock that civil rights violating gun-bans out. We can only hope.

Thursday, August 16, 2018

I can't tell you how delighted it made me. Not the Cody Wilson bits. He's just another dude that thinks like I do. He does a decent gun-interview and is able to get his meaning across through the prog-party advocacy press' editing efforts. Not many on our side can do that.

Listening to the news readers talk, realizing their underlying assumptions, and displaying their ignorance. THAT made me grin uncontrollably.

"The NRA isn't backing him, right?" "No because the NRA can't make money selling guns when everyone's garage is a gun factory" HA!

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

...of having small hands. They aren't big, but they aren't stubby fingered either.

Now, I have been convinced up til now, that, idealy, when gripping a pistol you want to get the bore in line with your wrist bones and elbow. This makes your major bones line up the gun and absorb the recoil, instead of just the wrist.

This is easy with the 1911. For me, at least. But try it with the old school M1917 revolver and shoot double action. I can get enough finger onto the trigger to draw it back with confidence and alacrity.

The same with most all double stack guns. Glock 17, darn near any SIG, what have you. My Hudson goes out of the way to make itself as slim as possible and I still have to crank my hand around to get my fingertip on the trigger without making lots of contact on the grip and frame.

If I don't put enough fingertip pad on the trigger face I push rounds to the side.

So, in the choice between lining up with the elbow, or getting my finger in the right place, I defer to the finger.

Future tests I must try: With all the swappable back straps going around on new pistol offereings, I think I'd like to experiment with the smaller offerings.

Monday, August 13, 2018

Sunday, August 12, 2018

I love fountain pens. And LAMY pens are an excellent inexpensive offering. The only disadvantages of fountain pens is the ink leaking onto you fingers, running out fast, and not being good with carbon paper when buying a gun and you have to press hart to get through to the 5th copy.

Saturday, August 4, 2018

My ratings of Old Timey authors I've been digging on over the years. By quality of writing and my enjoyment of same. Better on top, worst below.

Talbot Mundy (Jim Grim books. Remarkably well written for a pulpy storyline. And the dude knew the Near East)Robert E Howard (Conan. Purple, but good)Harcourt Pennyworth Lovecraft (Cthulhu ftagn! Plodding, but good)Louis L'Amour (good cowboy action)Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock)Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan, John Carter. First to start busting out of the old skool)

E. W. Hornung (Wrote Raffles the Cracksman... all these lower on the list high back the 19th Century more than those higher on the list, with a more staid and older story formula, usually clunky romantic bits to appeal to lady-readers of the day, too. Where they don't do this, I like them better.)Zane Gray (less good cowboy stuff. TOO old timey in the style. More poorly written romantic sub plots you see from the era. Have you even TALKED to a lady in your life, man?)Sax Rohmer (Fu Manchu. Too derivative and old timey. Dumb Sherlock with a Watson that thinks with his little brain versus Chinaman Moriarty.)Lester Dent (Doc Savage. Very 20th Century, but reads like Japanese anime storylines from the 60s. [Marine Boy! Speed Racer!] If I have to trudge through another scent with Monk and Ham bickering...)

Bonus ratings, Hard BoiledDashiel Hammett (the king)

Raymond Chandler (slightly better writer than above, but I like Dash's style)Mickey Spillane (somebody should cosh that guy behind the ear, see how HE likes it)

Friday, August 3, 2018

I love these old industrial films, as if anyone that is paying attention has not noticed. Look at the film and light quality of this 50s era color? 16mm, ya think? I can picture this in a classroom on movie day.

Good Advice

"You never select a shotgun as your primary anti-zombie firearm. It's great for onesy twosey, but zombies travel in hordes. The reload time is onerous, and the ammo, while effective, is heavy and bulky and short ranged."

Big Mistake for Her

If Ginsberg had let Scalia put the words "strict scrutiny" in Heller and Hillary said "Gun control is just not going to be a priority for my administration," Hillary would have been elected President.

About Me

Preamble

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.